French ‘rogue’ trader did no wrong: his lawyers
PARIS, Jan 28, 2008 - Lawyers for Jerome Kerviel, the trader fingeredin the Societe Generale scandal, said Sunday he had "committed no dishonestact, did not siphon off a single cent, and did not profit in any way". Elisabeth Meyer and Christian Charriere-Bournazel also accused the bank oftrying to "create a smokescreen which would divert public attention fromlosses that were significantly more substantial than those it accumulated inrecent months," notably in the midst of the US subprime mortgage crisis. They went on to accuse Societe Generale of having liquidated with needlesshaste the positions -- said by the bank to be in the vicinity of 50 billioneuros -- that Kerviel had taken.
AFP